I'm not sure that's a sustainable business model...

Sometime last month, I saw a deal on slickdeals.com for a toaster for $10 (60% off), and a toaster oven for $8 (90% off) from Sears.com.  Tara had just been telling me the toaster was shooting green sparks when she used it, and her parents had a toaster oven that always burned whatever they put in it, and they keep using the thing.  I figured I could fix Tara's toaster problem, and at the same time fix the other problem.  We've gotten stuff online from Sears like this before.  It's one of the reasons we have two Christmas trees...

I ordered a toaster and 2 toaster ovens - $28.  Two days later, I get two separate emails from Sears, telling me that my two orders were cancelled.  Sears sent me a $5 and a $10 gift certificate for my troubles.  Not bad, I thought, of them, is they are going to cancel, it was nice of them to send the cards.

A week later, I noticed a refund on my card for $17.  No charge, just the refund.  I thought this was kind of odd.  The week after that, I got an automated call saying my order had arrived.  I thought this was weird.  A couple of days later I checked my card, the charge for $17 showed up.  Still weird.  Then both gift cards came separately.  Then I got another reminder call that my order was ready for pickup.

Last Thursday, I went over to the store, and put in my name and phone number, so see what they brought out.  Out came a toaster.  This made me think that maybe they were just waiting to charge me the $11 until after I picked up the toaster.  (The toaster is nice by the way.)  As of this afternoon, still no charge for the toaster.

I went over to the store tonight to see if they could figure out what the deal was for me.  The cashier lady took me to their offices and called the Sears.com people.  We had to explain what happened three times.  The lady on the phone didn't know what to tell us, except that the orders were canceled.  I explained that I picked up the toaster last week.  Still nothing from the people on the phone.

One of the store managers told the cashier to just ring the thing up.  She entered the product number and seemed surprised at the price.  She asked if it had been on sale.  Then they let me finally pay for the toaster.

I expect one of three things to happen:

1. The toaster will last 10 years, start making green sparks, and still be a great deal
2. Now that I've gone in to pay for the toaster, the online charge will finally go through, I will have to go back to the store to explain it all over again to get my $10 back.
3. I will get a call next week from Sears saying my order has arrived, I will go over there, and the toaster ovens will have shown up.

I don't understand, really.  How many toasters has Sears given away to people, then also sent them a $5 gift certificate for their troubles?  Is this some strange promotion they are running to actually get people into their stores?  What's next, free drills and refrigerators?   Is this some odd disease they contracted after their merger with K-Mart?